Tuesday, April 20, 2010

As I said in the last post highlighting the start of the Yankees season, to put it bluntly, Javy Vazquez is struggling. If you have watched any of his starts you can see he is leaving pitches over the plate, his low 90s fastball and the overall lack of confidence on the mound. Boos showered him as he exited his last start; not exactly the redeeming return to New York he was looking for. In the time since his past start Vazquez has been hard at work with Dave Eiland to correct these problems.

Vazquez says that the ball is not moving due to his rushed delivery, this is attributed to the rush that comes with being a major league starting pitcher. The flaw is "easily correctable" according to Jav and something he has dealt with his entire career. Even Jorge agrees: "Everything is flat. The ball, instead of going downhill, it stays up in the zone and that's prime hitting area". That nasty bite is what helped Vazquez achieve 238 Ks.

He is not worried about his velocity, which is down to 89-91 mph as apposed to what he says should be 91-93 and topping off at 94. "That is not cause for concern" he said because he is still building up arm strength.

Perhaps (like Swisher) he just needs a break from Yankee stadium and this west coast trip will do him right.

Everyone, including me, still has faith in Vazquez. Cashman put it nicely: "I wouldn't have traded for him if I didn't"